


Passegiatta with a Dead Man

by rhodrymavelyne



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:40:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27980916
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Once again, Frederick Chilton dreams of Professor Solignato, only this time they’re taking a passegiata (a walk) through the streets of Florence, to share memories of Dr. Fell and his wife, who weren't really Dr. Fell and his wife...
Relationships: Bedelia Du Maurier/Hannibal Lecter, Dr. Frederick Chilton/Hannibal Lecter, Dr. Frederick Chilton/Professor Sogliato, Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Kudos: 5





	Passegiatta with a Dead Man

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place before And the Name of the Beast Is 666. It also takes place after my story Do You Dream of Gelato and Dead Men? I don’t own Hannibal but for months it has owned me.

Frederick Chilton had considered moving out of his apartment. Its pristine neatness had been invaded by Hannibal Lecter, his appetite for evisceration, dissection, and blood. Not to mention the organs. Don’t forget the organs. Anyone who’d been forced to play the part of the Chespeake Ripper wasn’t likely to forget them, even though Frederick had been a far less avid participant in the role than Dr. Abel Gideon had been. 

You’d think Gideon would have come back to haunt him. How he’d loved taunting Frederick in life, but perhaps he’d found more deserving people to haunt in death. Frederick hoped so. 

Only Frederick found himself dreaming again and again of Professor Solignato. Gelato at Gilli’s had only been the first date. Frederick found himself strolling through Florence at the other man’s side, passing by the familar landmarks of the Duomo and the Baptistry. The usual crowd of tourists whom Frederick had to fight his way past when he visited in person weren’t there. The piazza was blessedly empty, allowing the two men to hear the click of their heels. Such a vivid dream. 

“Lydia Fell used to walk this way all the time when doing her shopping.” Solignato allowed himself a wistful smile. Such a slender man he was with a delicate face, such sweet malice mingled with his melancholy. It wasn’t like Frederick couldn’t understand his emotional mix, especially with the ice pick still sticking out of his head. 

“Don’t you want to take that out?” Frederick reached up to touch the side of the murder weapon, caress it. Hannibal had held this, stabbed it into this man’s head. What was it like, to commit such violence, ruthlessly and impulsively?

“Please excuse me if I’m distressing you.” The professor smiled, showing even white teeth. Blood continued to drip from his wound. “I suppose it would help if I took it out. I haven’t seen very well since Dr. Fell stabbed me in the head.”

“I told you before. That wasn’t Dr. Fell, that was Dr. Lecter.” Blood had tasted exquisite mixed with the chocolate. Hannibal had given him a taste for such things. Perhaps Professor Solignato and he should go for gelato again. The other man could bleed into the bowl. Ah, he’d could admit to having a craving for these things in dreams, shocking though they were when awake. “He ate the real Dr. Roman Fell and took his place.”

“Really?” The man’s face lit up with radiant sweetness as if he was hearing this for the first time. “I knew it. Someone as accomplished as that man couldn’t be real.”

Frederick leaned forward and winked. A little blood splashed upon his lips. He licked them. “More like he was rotten to the core. You ought to know this. You were his victim.”

“In more ways than one. He humiliated me at a dance in front of my colleagues, again at the Palazzo Capone, only to murder me in front of his lovely wife.” Solignato heaved a dramatic sigh. “Do you know what it’s like, to haunt your former home? To see your killer bring his former beloved there to try to eat him, to share him with a rival lover? They used my table, my china, my glasses, my silver!” The sleek and oddly delicate heaved a shuddering breath which seemed too great for him. “Only to watch more people drop dead in my flat. The one who left the bodies had the nerve to say my table was Hannibal’s. Hannibal’s!” He spoke the name with almost sensuous venom. “That’s the name of a barbarian conquerer who once threatened the entire Italian peninsula. How appropriate.”

“Perhaps it is.” Frederick smiled a little at the younger man’s venom which was equal if not greater than his own. “It may amuse you to learn the lady whom walked here, whom pretended to be Hannibal’s wife was actually his psychiatrist.”

“Clearly she wasn’t a very effective one.” Solignato sniffed. “To think I had a madman using my flat as his blood-drenched love nest!” 

“Be flattered, Professor. For a serial killer, Hannibal Lecter has the most fussy aesthetics I’ve ever encountered.” Frederick offered Solignato a tiny, conspiritorial smirk. “The fact that he dragged his precious Will Graham there to feast upon shows that your flat must have been worthy of being a blood-drenched love nest.”

“Flattered. Oh, I’m so honored to be robbed of my flat, my beautiful things, my very life.” Solignato let out another melodramatic sigh. “Look at me now. I’m taking romantic strolls with a man I’ve never met. I’m here as some kind of cosmic joke.”

“I fear the universe can have a sick sense of humour,” Frederick dipped his head, almost apologetically. “I’m sorry I didn’t get to know you. What’s your name, I mean, what was your name? Your full name?”

“Solignato Riccardo.” For a moment Solignato’s entire expression softened into something almost shy. “Almost no one knows. No one wanted to know.”

“I’m Frederick, Frederick Chilton.” Frederick smiled back, tickled with an odd feeling he almost didn’t recognize. “Acknowledgment often has a price, Riccardo. I’ve been gutted, framed, and shot in the face before becoming a best-selling author.”

“At least you had a chance to become one.” Riccardo dipped his head slightly, still dripping blood. “At least you savored what I had to offer. Dr. Fell…Hannibal…never did.” 

“What you had to offer…” Frederick frowned, puzzled by the words before realizing what Solignato Riccardo meant. 

His blood. Frederick enjoyed the taste of his blood, even if it was in dream. Hannibal had spilled it without thinking twice about it or bothering to do anything with it. 

“Well, that was rude,” Frederick said, waking himself up with his own voice. Once more he’d dozed off in his former chair with his feet up. 

“Yes, it was.” Once again, Dr. Bloom was standing in front of him, glowering at him for using so casually what was now hers.

“I know, I know,” Frederick lowered his feet, scooted out of his seat. “You want me to get out of your chair.”

“That’s a bad habit you’re developing, Frederick.” Dr. Bloom crossed her arms, never losing her glower. “Falling asleep in a seat that’s no longer yours.”

“What can I say?” Frederick offered his colleague a roguish grin. “It’s so comfy.”

Dr. Bloom didn’t smile back. She just stared at him.

Some people have no sense of humor.

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to use online resources to find out what Solignato’s full name is, I looked at the doorplate in Digestivo and couldn’t read the full name. I’ve decided to come up with my own name for Professor Solignato and if someone knows his real name, please tell me. I’ll change this…


End file.
